Gary Lineker interview: Match of the Day presenter on BBC 'damage', reasons for leaving, regrets, politics

Gary Lineker has said he thinks the BBC wanted him to leave Match Of The Day (MOTD), with the former footballer adding he “didn’t like the damage” done by his controversial tweeting.

The 64-year-old outgoing MOTD host will leave the corporation after fronting its coverage of the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Presenter Gary Lineker, who has said he thinks the BBC wanted him to leave Match Of The Day. Picture : Ben Whitley/PA Wire | PA

Lineker, who has worked as a presenter on the highlights programme since 1999, told the BBC’s Amol Rajan: “It’s time [to leave]. I’ve done it for a long time, it’s been brilliant, it’s been great … well, perhaps they want me to leave … there was a sense of that.

“I always wanted one more contract. It was their preference that I didn’t do Match Of The Day for one more year so they could bring in new people. So it’s slightly unusual that I would do the FA Cup and the World Cup, but, to be honest, it’s a scenario that suits me perfectly.”

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The BBC declined to comment on Lineker’s remarks.

Last year, director of BBC Sport Alex Kay-Jelski said Lineker would be “hugely missed” on MOTD as his contract extension was announced.

A trio of presenters – Kelly Cates, Mark Chapman and Gabby Logan – will replace Lineker on MOTD.

Lineker was also grilled about the furore in March 2023 over his tweet comparing the-then British government’s asylum policy with 1930s Germany.

Gary Lineker looks on during the Premier League Hall of Fame 2024 Inductions event in London. Picture: Tom Dulat/Getty Images for Premier League | Getty Images for Premier League

The former England striker was briefly taken off air. Other sports journalists and presenters walked out in solidarity, before Lineker returned to fronting MOTD.

Lineker said: “I don’t regret saying them publicly, because I was right – what I said, it was accurate – so not at all in that sense.

“Would I, in hindsight, do it again? No, I wouldn’t, because of all the nonsense that came with it … it was a ridiculous overreaction that was just a reply to someone that was being very rude. And I wasn’t particularly rude back.”

He added: “But I wouldn’t do it again because of all the kerfuffle that followed, and I love the BBC, and I didn’t like the damage that it did to the BBC … but do I regret it and do I think it was the wrong thing to do? No.”

The presenter also said the BBC should “have ignored it and it would have been fine”. He called the corporation “silly” for its “overreaction” in taking him off air.

Lineker’s tweets, which sparked a row about BBC presenters expressing political views on social media, led to enhanced rules for BBC flagship presenters, including a ban on making attacks on political parties.

Lineker said he “wasn’t that bothered” to be told via a news alert, and not the BBC, that he would not be allowed back on MOTD for a while.

He also said he “cried” when fellow players-turned-pundits refused to go on air.

Asked about the rules, Lineker questioned why he had to be “impartial”, saying he was a “freelancer”, and the rules were for “people in news and current affairs – they have subsequently changed”.

He said this “left me, who always gave these honest opinions about things”, having to be impartial, which, he said, “didn’t make any sense”, and called it a freedom of speech issue.

“I think this is the mistake … the BBC tries to appease the people that hate the BBC, the people that always go on about the licence fee, attack the BBC,” he said.

“They worry way too much about that, rather than worry about the people that love the BBC, which is the vast majority.

“Why shouldn’t I have an opinion on things? I’m a bloody footballer who’s turned into a sports presenter.”

Earlier this year, Lineker condemned – along with more than 500 other media figures – the withdrawal of the documentary Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone after it emerged the child narrator, Abdullah, is the son of Ayman Alyazouri, who has worked as Hamas’s deputy minister of agriculture.

He said the BBC had “capitulated”, adding he does not see Abdullah as an issue, and maintaining the corporation should not have admitted to “a number of serious failings in their commissioning and editorial processes”.

Lineker ruled himself out of a career in politics, saying he had “never had a view”, before laughing.

“I think I’ll probably focus more on the podcast world, because it’s such a fun business and it’s just been so incredible,” he said.

His company, Goalhanger Podcasts, founded in 2019, has released popular podcasts such as The Rest Is Politics, The Rest Is Entertainment and The Rest Is Football, which he co-hosts with MOTD colleagues Alan Shearer and Micah Richards.

Lineker has been the BBC’s highest-paid on-air talent for seven consecutive years. He was estimated to have earned £1.35 million in 2023/24, according to the corporation’s annual report published in July.

When he stepped down, it was reported Lineker was open to staying on at MOTD, but was not offered a new deal for the show.

He will also host BBC Sport’s coverage of the FA Cup in the 2025-26 season, continue with the MOTD Top Ten podcast and the BBC will also host The Rest Is Football podcast, featuring Lineker, on BBC Sounds.